The Holey Schist 'Review of 2009

Greetings Everyone!

And a slightly belated 'Happy New Year' to one and all!

So that was it - 2009! What a year that was!?! Some good, some bad and definitely, some downright UGLY! So here goes. Brace yourself - it's The Holey Schist Review of 2009 from my own personal vantage point!

January:- Okay, so 2009 got off to an optimistic start with Ruth being offered a job at Nottingham Trent Uni opening the way for our longed for relocation to the East Midlands! Then I received an unconditional offer of a place at Leicester Uni to study Geology! Exciting times ahead . . .

February:- Ruth and Amy move to Loughborough in readiness for their starts at NTU and Robert Bakewell Primary School respectively! Both settle in really well, but boy is it tough being separated from me and Anna back in Bolton. What sounded a straight forward idea in principle wasn't to prove as easy as all that!

March:- Meanwhile, my Open University course - S104 starts to get tougher, more so when weekend study time is swallowed up by trips to Loughborough in order to reunite the family!

April:- Quantum Physics! The subject that I feared most in S104 turns out to be my greatest triumph! It just showed that with grit and determination great things can be achieved! 90-odd percent? Extraordinary! The 'End of Course Assessment beckons!

May:- My 49th Birthday arrives and gifts of money were used to purchase several books of a geology persuasion, including Wayne Ranney's 'Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau' - definitely my 'Book of the Year - 2009'. Simply, a GEM!

June:- After Anna completes her GCSEs we both move down to Loughborough to be reunited with Ruth and Amy! Hoorah! Meanwhile, S104 Exploring Science is finished, done and dusted. Just a 2 month wait for the result! Left my job with Jacobs and endured possibly the most farcical and stressful job change of my life!

July:- Had offer on the house in Bolton! Hoorah! Buyer later pulls out! Boo! Meanwhile, now working for Balfour Beatty - kind of, err sort of jumped ship as it were!?!  Don't ask!!!

August:- Passed S104 with 'flying colours' (whatever that means!?!). Just 8 tantalising percent short of a distinction! Getting that close was something of a miracle in itself, given the mega-stressful year we've all had! Anna also got her GCSE results - umpteen passes as expected! We're VERY proud of her!!!

September:- Can't remember much happening in September other than too much work and stress, Work proving to be fun though - actually involved in building a road - 28 kilometres of it to be precise. Okay, it means turning green fields into tarmac and concrete, but it wil actually improve peoples lives in the long run and help stop lots from getting killed! Yes, really!

October:- Enrolled on S193 - Fossils and the History of life with the OU. Starts in December and is just a short 2 month, 10 pointer. Should be very interesting! Went to sister-in-law Caroline and Charlie's Wedding in Sileby, Leicestershire.  Fantastic day! Lovely couple! Got a tad drunk, myself!

Here's a few photos of the great day....

Caroline, Charles and  his parents.

My gorgeous wife Ruth, with me looking rather like Mr Fezziwigg from Scrooge. I mean me, not Ruth!

Amy Claire and  Anna-Ruth looking beautiful!

November:- NOT a good month! Ruth not well. Details are rather personal, but suffice to say, our 'work/life balance' is a bloody mess and needs addressing as soon as poss! The sooner that damned house is sold in Bolton the better!!! On a positive note, both the girls took to the stage, with Anna singing in a choir called 'Enchanted' while Amy made her first public perfomance with 'Stagecoach'. Step-dad (yours truly) blubbed through every performance! Bless!

December:- Christmas comes and with it snow and weather, the like of which I aint seen for decades! The fossil course is now underway and fascinating it all is!

Above: Gryphaea arcurata, also known as 'Devils toenail' a fossil from  the Triassic/Jurassic. (Source: Wikipedia - 2009).

Regular reference to the 'Geological Timescale' means that it is at long last sinking in! Had a great Christmas break well and truly recharged the batteries in readiness for the NEW YEAR!!!



So there you have it. A 'funny old year' and not one I'll look back on with much pleasure in truth. BUT, at least the family has relocated to Loughborough at last and there's so much to be positive about as we get stuck into 2010.

I fully intend to blog a bit more this year and I'll start with a review on S193 once I finish it off in a couple of weeks time. As there are no written assignments required on this one, I think it would be a good idea to summarise the whole thing in a series of blogs right here!


So Happy New Year and stay tuned for some palaeontology! Nice!

Cheers,
Alyn.

Oh Blimey, it's S104 Result Day!

Greetings Folks!

Brace yourself! It's result day! Nine months of sweat and mental toil come down to this. The suspense has been killing me for the last couple of months, so without further ado, my result is . . . . .

PASS!

YES!!!!! Fantastic! Never in doubt really, but there was a glimmer of a chance of a distinction leading up to the end of course assessment. However, the mark of 77% was tantalisingly 8 marks short. Curses! A shame, but when I think about the domestic turmoil that I was working through while doing the course it was pretty amazing that I was even within sniffing distance of a distinction. Living 100 miles away from half of my family, moving home and changing jobs isn't exactly conducive to serious study! But, I weathered the storm and got through it. In the end, I've got to be delighted by 85% for the coursework and 77% for the ECA.

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This great result has given me loads of confidence in my ability and brain power and allows me to think about Leicester University with excitement and confidence. There are lots of obstacles (particularly financial) to overcome before that goal is realised, but at least I know I'm capable, which was the reason for doing S104 in the first place.

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As a result of the pass I even get a qualification in it's own right! I now have a Certificate in Natural Sciences and may use the letters Cert NatSci (Open) after my name! I will of course be using this at every available opportunity and expect all my friends and family to use it when communicating with me from now on!

So on that triumphant note I will leave you! Rest assured, lots of bubbly stuff will be consumed in due course!

See ya soon!

Cheers, Alyn

Education - 'tis a wonderful thing!

Well, that's just about that!

After nine months sweat and toil, it's almost over! S104: Exploring Science, is all but over with only the 25 question computer marked assignment left to do. Astonishingly, I achieved a whopping 97% in my final tutor marked assignment, which means that if I manage to get 85% on my End of Course Assessment, I will be awarded a 'distinction'!!!

When I started out on this journey nine months ago, the goals were merely to see if I was up to study again after donkeys years of nothing, learn a bit and see if I can pass an Open University course - nothing more than that really. With all that has gone on domestically since the turn of the year, it's frankly astonishing that I have even a sniff of a distinction. There have been times when I even considered, albeit briefly, to throw the towel in. With so much going on around me, to then sit down and try to grapple with Quantum Physics, was a 'big ask' as Mark Lawrenson would say!

But this course has given me so much that I never even considered beforehand. I now find myself routinely reading the BBC Science web pages, NASA's Mars mission pages and countless others to feed my almost unquenchable thirst for knowledge. But to have this thirst at the ripe old age of 49 is kind of interesting. I can never remember ever having had such an enthusiasm for learning all those years ago in school. Not even in college either! I'm left thinking that maybe one needs to 'live life' a bit, experience the repetitive dullness of employment, before one realises what is truly exciting and stimulating in life. In that sense, education is rather lost on the young. School and indeed further education seems geared to getting 'a job' at the end of it, without thinking beyond that.

Well folks, listen up! THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN GETTING TO THE TOP OF THE CORPORATE LADDER!

There, I've said it! Tar 'n feather me if you like, but that's what I feel. I can assure you, when I get my Geology degree, I won't be seeking employment with another consulting engineers, to resume that climb up the ladder again (not that I ever got above the second rung previously!). Nope, of more interest to me is research. As I've already said, if I can make some contribution, however small to the multitude of questions, asking how Grand Canyon came to be the way it is, I will die a happy man! If I can write a geology book like Wayne Ranney's, that make this wonderful subject understandable to the interested layman I will be very proud indeed!

That's got to be preferable to meaningless staff appraisals, 'taking ownership of your deliverables' and endless corporate 'tosh' surely?

Each to their own, I guess.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Alyn

End of Course Asssessment looming!

Greetings Folks!
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So, the pressure mounts! The deadline for the S104, Exploring Science, end of course assessment is 28th of May! It's a HUGE piece of work and I have to say, I am not at all impressed with the Open University's choice of cut off date! They say we should post off our work at least 4 days before the deadline. Well, that just happens to be a Bank Holiday, so there is no postal service that day! The day before that is a Sunday, so there's no postal service then either! So I will have to look at getting it posted on Saturday 23rd at the latest. However, I'm going to be away for the weekend, so that means I'll need to have everything done and dusted by the end of next Thursday night! Arrrrrrgggghhh!!???!!!

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Anyway, that aside, it's going reasonably well so far and I think I'm on schedule to finish it in time. Just about!?! Progress was hampered by the OU's insistence on including an exercise that requires online discussions and contributions to the course forum. This involves online research and also needs the cooperation and efforts of all your fellow students to spark an online debate! Well, having to rely on ones online colleagues was never going to be that straight forward and the 'debate' has been virtually non-existant. Only 7 people have contributed anything at all, out of about 15 who started the couse in our group! That suggests either a major drop out rate or some students simply sacrificing a few marks in favour of getting on with the rest of the questions without this ill conceived hassle interrupting their flow! Maybe a wise choice, I'm beginning to think!?!
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AND, I've still not received my mark for my final tutor marked assignment, so I don't know at this stage what my final mark is for my course work. My tutor has been pretty excellent thorughout the whole course, taking over at short notice after our original Canadian tutor failed to get her work permit renewed and consequently got shown the door. I've already passed the course work anyway, so it's not that important I guess.
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Oh blimey, somebody stop me moaning! That's something my wife and I are doing way, WAY too much at the moment, but I guess that's just a sign of the stress we are under right now! There's got to be an outlet somehow!
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So tomorrow, Ruth and I are going to have a bit of stress relief by going to watch our beloved Bolton Wanderers play Hull City at the Reebok Stadium in what is the final home match of the Premier League season! It's a bit of an 'end of season' affair with nothing at stake for the Wanderers, but poor old Hull are hanging by a thread to their Premier League status! Should be fun!
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Before I go, take a look at this photo from the BBC Science web site which blew my mind this week!

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Taken by Hubble telescope, it shows a huge cluster of galaxies some 13 billion light years away! S104 has made me think a lot about the sheer scale of the universe and bearing in mind the vastness of our own galaxy, to then consider a whole cluster of galaxies as shown here, just goes to highlight the almost unfathomable immensity of the universe! When I finish my course, I'll have lots more time to talk about this stuff in more detail!
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Better get on - I've got an assessment to finish!
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Cheers for now!
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Alyn

Hanging in there!

Greetings folks!

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Apologies for the deadly silence over the last few weeks! It's not that there hasn't been anything to blog about recently - far from it! But it has been a frantically busy, and extremely stressful time, not just for me, but all of my family too in so many ways. Where do I begin?

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Well as you know, as it stands I am living in our home of five years in Bolton, in the north west of England with our eldest daughter Anna-Ruth who is now in the midst of her GCSE exams. So Anna has a whole heap of stress to cope with and thankfully, so far, she's taking it all in her stride. Meanwhile, my darling wife Ruth and our youngest daughter Aimee Claire, have moved to Loughborough, in the East Midlands. Aimee has settled in superbly to her new school while Ruth gradually gets to grips with her new role in Nottingham Trent University.

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Starting a new job is tricky enough, but with the family split up from Sunday evening until Friday evening each week it obviously means that for Ruth, all the family childcare duties such as taking Aimee to Guides/trampolining/guitar lessons etc etc falls completely in her lap. Ruths mum and dad chip in of course with the school run and stuff like that, but it all leaves Ruth with precious little time to 'chill' or do anything for herself. It's all taking its toll which is heart breaking for me and I feel so helpless, being over 100 miles away!

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So it all makes our weekends so precious. Either I travel down to Loughborough or Ruth travels up to Bolton, which naturally costs a fortune in petrol at a time when our finances are stretched while trying to run two homes, albeit temporarily! And then there is the problem of employment! Ruth has obviously started her new job, but I now need to find an alternative position for myself by mid June. Encouragingly, I've been getting positive vibes from my current employers about the possibility of a transfer to one of its other offices in the East Midlands - either Nottingham or Derby. So hopefully something will come of that and give me one less thing to worry about.

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Now, just for a laugh, throw into the mix the small matter of me trying to finish my Open University science foundation course! I have now done all the computer marked and tutor marked assignments and averaged at about 83%. Only one blip of 60% has scuppered the chance of a distinction! So given the circumstances of my study, I think it's nothing short of a miracle that I've been able to achieve what I have. It has given me a lot of confidence that when I finally start my MGeol degree at Leicester Uni I will be able to achieve great things. Yes folks, after careful consideration, I have deferred my place at Leicester to the September 2010 start, which was a difficult, but necessary decision. That will give me a year to settle in Loughborough and be properly ready to get cracking! Can't wait!!!!

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So there you have it. A brief snapshot of the crazy, mentally and physically draining, mad, mad world of Alyn, Ruth and family! One things for sure - when all four of us are finally reunited in our new home in Loughborough, there will be

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ONE HELL OF A PARTY!!!!

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So, after getting all that off my chest, I'll get back to geology next time, which will be soon - promise!

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Cheers for now,

Alyn.

How about some British Geology?

Greetings folks!


With my head throbbing due to the new demands being made on the 'grey matter' lately, I think it's time to take a 'timeout' from Open University study and have a little look at some examples of the geology that Britain has to offer. My post vacation obsession with Arizona and Utah, has meant that Britain has been somewhat overlooked in this blob, so time to redress the balance a bit. While obviously smaller in scale, Britain's geology is no less interesting.


For example, it's not only the southwest USA that can point to spectacular arches! Oh yes, here in the U.K. we have some awesome examples too. Okay, granted, we can't really boast 200 plus in one National Park like Utah, but nevertheless we have some spectacular coastal examples, such as in the photo I included at the end of my last blog:- Durdle Door on the south coast:-

Who guessed right? Yes, it's Durdle Door in Dorset, England.

(Photo by 'drumaboy @ Flikr.com and reproduced here under the Creative Commons License)

This arch was formed by the sea eroding though lines of weakness in the Purbeck Limestone which comprises the arch. For more information on the formation of Durdle Door, there is an excellent web site produced by Ian Wilson from Southampton University. To visit it click here

One of my favourite regions in Britain for sheer, spectacular beauty is the Lake District. I spent several walking holidays in my youth clambering up the awe inspiring fells. My favourite peak by far is Helvellyn and at a relatively modest 3117 feet above sea level, it's ascent never the less is still a challenge, especially negotiating the imposing 'Striding Edge' shown here:-

Striding Edge, Helvellyn, Lake District, Cumbria, England.

(Photo by 'micsten' @ Flikr.com & reproduced here under the Creative Commons License)

This magnificent 'knife-edged' ridge or 'arete' was formed as two opposing glaciers started out on their respective journeys down their valleys, carving out the rocks beneath and behind them, until they met, forming this breathtaking ridge. I've managed to negotiate Striding Edge on two occasions and thankfully got to the top safely enough. I believe there are a few people over the years however, who have not! Negotiating the ridge can be a bit scary on a windy day and there have been a few who have a made a rapid descent. Incidentally, the photo above reminds me of a book I have called "Over the Edge" which as I think I have mentioned before, is a somewhat macabre record of the deaths in Grand Canyon. The girl in the above pic is doing what so many have done at various viewpoints at Grand Canyon, with a two thousand foot drop to their sides! After a split seconds loss of concentration - whoops, one messy descent! The drop at Striding Edge might not be quite as great, but it's certainly no less messy if you slip!

I'm sure somewhere I will have stored away, a whole load of photos from my vacations to the Lake District and will have a few of Helvellyn and other beautiful features from the area. I think I'll go and have a 'butchers' and see what I can find! Anything interesting I will scan and post them on my next blog.

So until the next time!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

P.S. Nearly forgot to tell you!! Got my first set of assignment marks for S104! For the first tutor marked assignment I got 100% and the first computer marked assignment I got 87%!?!

Yeah, I know, bizarre innit? And the marks I lost on the CMA were REALLY stupid errors like writing a number from the question down wrong!?! So, a good start, but it's maths next and then chemistry after that, so the going is definitely going to get tougher, but that just means more of a challenge. Bring it on!!!

A beautiful photo of Durdle Door, Dorset, England.

(Photo by Mathew Muzerie @ Flikr.com reproduced under the Creative Commons License)

S104: The Story so Far!

Greetings!

Sorry it's been a while, but that's what studying does I guess! As predicted, the greatest challenge before me is not so much the level of the work, but simply finding the necessary time to get the studying done. Family life, as anyone with children will testify, sees demands on one's time that are a bit random (to use my daughters favourite word). This makes planning my Open University study rather difficult to say the least. The OU asks you to do a plan of when you will do the necessary studying, but it wasn't long before the plan went completely out of the window. I'll just have to maintain a flexible approach and do what I can, when I can. But what the heck, the kids education comes WAY before my belated attempts but I will get the job done!

So, what's been happening? Well the precipitation measurement exercise went well if a little strangely. We had to design two rain gauges, one open topped and one with a funnel. They had to be constant diameter obviously and flat bottomed, with the funnel the same diameter as the bottle. Easy! Skills learnt through many adolescent years watching 'Blue Peter' came to the fore to produce a masterpiece of engineering.

So a big 'thank you' goes to Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves (whatever happened to them?) I'm particularly proud of the addition of the rim of corrugated card covered in packing tape around the outside of the funnel to keep the funnel top securely in place! Genius huh? Well, we were required to produce two weeks of data and then calculate a daily mean precipitation for each week. Week one produced nothing. Nowt. Zilch. Diddly-squat! A BIG ZERO seven days running! However, week two brought several days of torrential rain, with one day in particular bringing about 35 millimetres of rain. Don't ya just love Britain?

Since then I've finished my first computer marked assignment a week early and got the first tutor marked assignment done in good time too. I made a few classic mistakes on the CMA, like not reading the question properly and worst of all writing a number down wrong so that no matter how perfect my method was, I was never going to get the right darned answer! Doh!?!

So, all in all, it's been a good start. I'm gradually finding the best way for me to study - what works for me and what doesn't, so that's good. I'm determined not to get too stressed about stuff. The main aim is to ENJOY studying science! As my OU course tutor said on our first tutorial a few of weeks ago, "if we don't enjoy it, what's the point?" Absolutely!

Now here's a strange thing! While out visiting a sixth form college (Pendleton College near Salford) one evening last week, who should I meet in the foyer, showing visitors around, but a guy I met at the first course tutorial! It really does seem a very small world sometimes! Only days before we had been working as a team, bouncing ping-pong balls to determine how the rebound height varies with drop height. Fascinating stuff it was too!

Next up is the book I've been looking forward to most: 'Earth and Space'. Included here are earthquakes; volcanoes; plate tectonics and an introduction to GEOLOGY! Way-hey!!! We've been supplied with a small kit of rock and mineral samples together with some fossil plaster casts and a hand lens for examining them. One activity involves placing a small rock sample in vinegar! Now I wonder what that is a test for??? I think I already know the answer! Should be fun!

I'll leave you with a photo of a wonderful piece of BRITISH geology of which I'll speak more of soon!

Cheers for now,

Alyn

Guess where this is!

Clue: It ain't Arches National Park!!

Photo by 'Drummaboy' @ Flickr.com

Don't Panic!!!

Okay, so I'm panicing!

Well only a bit! You see, last Friday a package arrived containing the first batch of study material for my Open University course, S104 - Exploring Science. I made the mistake of quickly flicking through 'Book 4' which covers chemistry! Blimey! There across the page I was confronted with pages of chemical formulae. You know the stuff: H2 SO4 - that kind of thing, except great, humungus, long ones. All of a sudden my 'O' level in chemistry seems light years ago. In fact it damn near IS light years ago - 32 to be accurate! It's quite shocking to realise, it was the spring of 1976 when I did my 'O' level in chemistry and managed a grade 'C'. In fact I remember my chemistry teacher trying to persuade me to go on to do an 'A' level in the subject, but I instead chose to do Maths which with the benefit of hindsight, was perhaps a mistake!

Anyway, now that I've composed myself a little, I reckon I'm suffering from the same syndrome that other newly enrolled OU students suffer from - 'First Study Package Panic'. That great idea you had ages ago about studying something that really interests you is suddenly happening! It's here and it's starting in just over three weeks! Gulp!

But hey, one only needs to follow the advice given on the Course Guide - read the guide first and prepare properly. Book 1 is obviously the better place to start and this covers a great topic to get things off and running - global warming! Now this is a subject that I love, not least bacause it always gets me arguing with my mum! She is convinced that there is no such thing as global warming, it's all happened before and is nothing to do with human activity. Well, that might be true in part. It has all happened before but I believe that it is the rate at which it is happening that is the problem and that surely has got a lot to do with human activity. So, once I've covered Book 1, I should be ready to take on my mother again in another heated debate on a Saturday evening over a bottle of Cabernet!

Yep, after flicking through the course materials, there is a lot of exciting stuff ahead including home experiments and studying rock samples and fossil plaster casts, so I can't wait to get cracking. So keen am I that I've bought a new pencil case - a lovely 3 compartment one in 'mock Croc'. Oh yes, new course = new pencil case! It's only right and proper in my book! Sure there will be challenges ahead, not least actually finding the time to do the studying amongst the detritus of the everyday working life. Oh to ditch the day job and devote ALL my time to it, but alas, that wouldn't pay the bills. So, I'll see how I go and review my progress regularly.

Meanwhile, if there are any other S104 enrollees looking in, do get in touch and we can share thoughts on the challenges ahead!

I'll keep y'all posted!

Cheers for now,

Grumpychops

Grand Canyon, Arizona - very hot! Due to global warming?

Well, possibly, a bit, but what's certain is that this is the most pathetic excuse for showing ANOTHER photo of the wonderful Grand Canyon!!

(Photo by Grumpychops, March 2008)

Return to education

The last few weeks have been a little crazy, racing around the country in search of Carillons, but that's another story. Suffice to say, it's been an education and that is something that is going to play a big part in my life in the coming months and years all being well.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, Geology has been an interest for most of my life and really ought to have been my life's vocation. However, due to the unfortunate combination of a lousy maths teacher and my school's refusal to allow me to drop my 'A' level maths and concentrate on my geography and physics, I failed both maths and physics. That scuppered any hopes of getting into Oxford Poly to do the Geology degree course that I had set my heart on, but at least my excellent grade 'B' in Geography meant I could activate 'Plan B'. Being the cautious type, I did at least plan for the nightmare scenario of not getting the required two C's and only managing the one Geography 'A' level. As a result I embarked on a Higher Diploma in Geographical Techniques at Luton College and my life took a different course as a result.

A working life that started as a Cartographic Draughtsman has evolved into that of a CAD Technician. Yes, still drawing but now with the computer rather than Rotring drawing pens; on a computer monitor, rather than drafting film. They call it progress and I suppose it is of a sort. But like so much of modern life, it doesn't make it any better or more pleasurable. Quite the opposite in fact. Where I used to have the satisfaction of some degree of artistic creativity, that is now all but gone. So not surprisingly my heart yearns for something more, something to feel passionate about, that will stimulate my mind for the next 20 years plus. What frightened me was the thought of plodding through the next 17 years bored senseless, waiting until I retire to a life of gardening and incontinence! No thanks! Not for me, ta!

High time then for a change of direction. To make a start, I have enrolled with the Open University to start their Science Foundation course "Discovering Science - S104 which is due to commence on 29th September. Exciting! This will hopefully kick start the 'grey matter' and re-familiarise myself with the concept of study. As around 30 years have passed since my last period of formal study the next 9 months could prove challenging, particularly as I will be attempting to do it all around usual family/work life! So, if there is anyone out there from UK who has done S104 or S103, it's predecessor, do post a comment and let me how you found it!

For now I will leave you with another reminder of just why I want to study Geology and if I ever work out how to set up this Picaso Slideshow thingy I'll show you a whole lot more!

Cheers, Grumpychops.

The 'Tee-pees' at Painted Desert/Petrified Forest, Arizona. A stunning place!

(Photo by Grumpychops, March 2008)